“I do,” she said quickly.
He raised an eyebrow.
“But not with my heart.” She looked away. “I’m sorry.”
He reached down with his left hand and brushed away a few strands of hair. “Honey, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when you are. For right now, let’s sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.”
She nodded, rolling back onto her side. Hunter wrapped himself around her, his entire body pressed against hers and his arm slung over her waist. He was so close, she could feel when his breathing changed and she knew he’d fallen asleep.
But Maggie lay awake wondering, thinking. Would she ever be ready to give up her heart? It was risky. What if it didn’t work out? Living with her father, she’d always been waiting for the other shoe to drop. And now, with Hunter, she had the same feeling. If she let go, if she fell for him, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her world would fall apart.
17
IN THE MORNING, Hunter drove a quiet Maggie to Fort Campbell. He’d gone out first thing, before she woke, to pick up coffee and cinnamon rolls. She’d thanked him, but stopped short of saying the words he wanted to hear: I’ve fallen for you, too. I’m ready to set my issues aside and do whatever it takes to make this work.
But he wasn’t raising the white flag yet. He couldn’t blame her for not trusting him entirely, not when he’d been holding back from day one, interfering with her book. Maggie’s world hinged on her work. If she discovered he’d tried to take that away from her, robbed her of the stable future a tenured position promised, she’d fall apart. He couldn’t let that happen, not to the woman he loved.
He’d only known her a week, but a week in his world could be life changing. Hell, the hours he’d spent in Taliban country with a gunshot wound that required a modern hospital had nearly cost him his life. He’d be damned if he was going to ship out again without fighting for Maggie.
Hunter walked out of the office building where he’d just left Maggie with Connor. She had three interviews back-to-back, giving him plenty of time to kill. When he reached the rental car, he opened the driver-side door and slipped inside. He pulled out his phone and dialed. Knowing he was putting his career with the army on the line, he pressed Send. Maggie was more important than his job. He didn’t need the excitement of being a Ranger. He’d take a stateside position—from the army or from a private company, whoever was offering—if it meant he could keep Maggie. And after he made this call, after he intentionally disregarded his colonel’s orders, he had a feeling the army wouldn’t be eager to work with him.
“Hey, Logan. It’s Hunter. Yeah, I’m good. Fully recovered. How are you?” Hunter listened to his friend for a minute. He k
new his former teammate was still hurting after the loss of his wife to cancer, but he suspected Logan would also understand Hunter’s situation. That, and the man owed him. Hunter had never blamed Logan—getting shot was one of the risks of fighting—but he knew his friend held himself responsible.
“Look, man, I’ve met someone,” Hunter said when they’d finished the pleasantries. “And she’s it. But I need your help. I need you to drive down to New York for an interview.”
* * *
MAGGIE GLANCED AT the clock on the wall. She had ten minutes before her third and final interview with Mike, the team medic, the man who’d saved Hunter’s life. If anyone could tell her how Hunter had ended up with a bullet in his shoulder, she had a feeling it would be the guy responsible for keeping his injured teammate alive. The other guys had all evaded the question with a “these things happen” answer. But instinct told her there was more to the story. And she wanted to get to the bottom of it, if for no other reason than to keep her mind from drifting back to last night.
Hunter wanted more. Commitment. A relationship. More tie-me-up sex. He’d blown her fantasies away, all right. She’d dreamed about wild, passionate sex and she’d fantasized about a drop-dead sexy man falling in love with her, but to find both with the same man? Not possible—or so she’d thought.
So why hadn’t she said yes last night?
Fear.
Maggie pushed back from the table in frustration. She was afraid of what letting an army ranger into her life would do to her, especially one who vied for control. But her fear didn’t change the fact that part of her wanted to keep seeing him. Until recently, maintaining control over her life had felt reassuring. But now it felt like an oppressive weight—except when she was with Hunter.
She opened the door to the conference room and walked down the hall to find the coffee machine Hunter had shown her. Maggie smiled at the men and women in uniform sitting in their offices, forcing herself to appear professional, instead of a woman who was wondering what she would say to her potential boyfriend after work.
“How’d your interview go?”
Maggie froze outside the entrance to the kitchen. She recognized Connor’s voice. She’d spent two hours talking to him this morning. Only this time, he wasn’t talking to her. She shouldn’t eavesdrop, but she couldn’t resist.
“Great.” That voice belonged to Jed, the second teammate she’d met with this morning. “I said what Hunter told me to say.”
Maggie tensed. Of course Hunter had prepared his teammates for their interviews. That was his job as her liaison.
“Same here,” Connor replied. “But she asked how Hunter got hit. Do you think she’ll learn the truth?”
Maggie held her breath.
“Nope. I heard the colonel ordered Hunter to keep a tight leash on her. Control the message of her book. And if there is anyone who can manage a woman, it’s Hunter.”
Connor laughed. “You know he spent the last week living with her, right? I mean, he called me from her study in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah, I bet he didn’t spend the night there. Unless...do you think they did it on her desk?”